cinemajesty Film Review: "Empire Of The Sun" (1987)To the minority of moviegoers in holiday season 1987/1988, director Steven Spielberg had had created a masterpiece of cinema. At a closer look "Empire of The Sun" had been an ambitious Hollywood movie production, which luckily features one of the most talented child-actor of his generation Christian Bale, carrying nearly 150 minutes of film on his 12-year-old shoulders with just a second-half anker-point in shapes of actor John Malkovich within an unrealistic-designed Prisoner-War-Camp abandoned by the Japanese, when the war for Chinese soil seems lost, and leaving Jim, the all-too-early becoming an adult, traumatized by war, finds his child memories in ruins in the middle of a ghastly desert base, filled by damaged properties of value within the spirit of a child's stolen time of life never lived.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments 2018

jianbbao When the boy grew up, he realized it's an atrocity that the war brought about by the Japanese army. he felt repentance about Chinese people and his past view of war.After he made friend with Christopher Nolan who is good at time and space maneuvering, he decided returning back to 1937 of Nanking, China, and wanted to change to process of the war, but without any reason he lost all his batman's powers, and no gears with him too. he tried his best to save dozens of children in local church by his make-up skills which he learned from The Prestige's face disguise. and then director Zhang Yimou depicted in the movie Jin ling shi san chai, a.k.a. The Flowers of War.

bkoganbing I can see that a tale told from a child's point of view how it would stir the imagination of one Steven Spielberg. Empire Of The Sun is a really imaginative story of a young boy stuck in World War II China in a truly terrible situation cut off from his parents. Yet young Christian Bale turns the whole thing gradually into an adventure of sorts. Up to the age of 11 young Bale has lived in the British quarter of Shanghai and in fact has never seen the United Kingdom, his father Rupert Frazer owns a textile factory. Bale and his parents live in luxury among the millions of Chinese.What one should remember when watching Empire Of The Sun is that since the Opium War of 1841 western powers and Japan joined them took small little nibbles out of China and in fact were granted by the weak Chinese governments special treatment in their quarters. Frazer, Emily Richard his wife and young Bale lived under British law and did not answer to the Chinese. The other powers did the same, even the USA had its own quarter in Shanghai as well as other large Chinese cities. That only ended with the Communist takeover in 1949.It ended a bit prematurely for the west in 1941 when the Japanese attacked America, Great Britain, the Netherlands. That's when Bale's well ordered world falls apart.I had to marvel at how when Bale came home and the parents were gone and some looting had occurred how his reactions were. Without any dialog Bale runs through a gamut of emotions. Great job of acting and directing.Later on Bale is rounded up and taken to an internment camp next to an airfield. Fascinating how Bale who had an interest in aviation looks at the Japanese planes and become almost worshipful of the enemy. He even makes friend with some of the Japanese, a group not known for treating prisoners well in World War II.Joe Pantoliano and John Malkovich are a pair of American adventurers, no better than they ought to be. They're caught along with Bale and sent to the internment camp. Our adult eyes see them as a pair of bottom feeders. But we see them through the child's eyes also and they become sort of devil may care rogues that one reads in pulp fiction the kind Bale no doubt read. Steven Spielberg did a marvelous job of recreating wartime China and it certainly helped to shoot the film there. Just part of the People's Republic's post Mao entry into the community of nations.The adult performers are fine. Empire Of The Sun got a flock of Oscar nominations in technical categories, no gold though. But it did inaugurate the career of Christian Bale who's done pretty well for himself as an adult actor too.This one is highly recommended for its realism and encouragement of imagination.

ethanct86 Quality: 9/10 Content: 7.5/10 There is a scene in Spielberg's film adaption of J. G. Ballard's novel, Empire of the Sun, where an imprisoned boy by the name of Jim salutes and sings the heart-piercing "Suo Gân" to three Kamikaze pilots in their pre- flight ritual. This little airplane enthusiast has no care – more specifically, he doesn't know – of the class and physical barriers that separated Japan and their captives. He respects and cares for all; everyone is equal in his innocent eyes. He salutes, befriends and surrenders to Japanese and American alike without a thought of wires or possible consequences, and everyone, even the brutal Japanese sergeant Nagata, enjoys his presence with a certain respect and adoration for him. Like the author J. G. Ballard's own experiences, Jim, or James Graham (Christian Bale's first major role that brought him into the limelight), lives in the untouched International Settlement in Shanghai before Japan invaded it, while his well-to-do parents keep him oblivious to the intense nature of the war raging outside the metal barricades of the settlement. When the Japanese do finally march in, Jim and his parents are separated by the great throngs of chaotic crowds. Jim now has to survive on his own until he runs into a strange, snobbish American, Basie, whom he persuades to protect him. The war moves on, and our characters are moved to the Soochow camp, but we don't care as it makes no difference to unenlightened Jim. Spielberg definitely succeeds in creating movies on World War II, and like any other of them, the oppressors bring down numerous beatings, though Spielberg curbed it to a PG rating, and mild language is spit out in intense, emotional scenes. Though Jim loudly proclaims his atheistic faith, his beliefs are radically different. He talks about God and what he does, possibly a touch in order to appeal to Christian viewers. Throughout the movie, the tween-aged Jim often cries "I surrender" to anyone in a uniform, hoping to gain access to his parents or a guardian through that act. But I doubt little Jim understands that phrase, because, instead of a weak, fainthearted boy, we see one with a strong constitution and standing up to oppressors and respecting all (even the dead). Even in conditions so arduous and severe, his manners and respect last through the entire war, recognized by us and an admiring Basie who says, "You've got nice manners. I appreciate that." Spielberg's powerful use of the camera and Bale's show-stopping performance emphasizes what man would do in harsh and demanding environments. On the other hand, Jim, scraping out a living through a complex network of theft and trade, lives unknowing to the motives behind the cruelties of the camp in his high world of airplanes. We follow Jim and his experiences like a close friend, but like everyone else, we can't convince him of the real dangers and truths he is ignorant of. Unlike Jurassic Park, Spielberg enhances the original material, and touches it with emotion, friendships and an inspirational story.